How the parking referendum petition process works

That is how many valid signatures of voters in the city of Cincinnati that opponents of the ordinance to lease out Cincinnati parking meters and garages need to place a referendum on the ordinance on the November ballot.

The petitions are filed with the city finance director. Amy Murray, a Republican city council candidate who is one of the leaders of the petition drive, said they plan to submit their signatures to the finance director on Tuesday of next week.

City spokeswoman Meg Olberding said the city will follow the procedures set out by Ohio law. That means the finance director's office will time-stamp the petitions and hold them for 10 days before delivering them to the Hamilton County Board of Elections. The petitions will be public documents and open to inspection by members of the public.

Amy Searcy, director of Hamilton County Board of Elections, said her office will then check the signatures against the voter rolls to see if there are 8,522 valid signatures. The process, Searcy said, should take about a week.